Americans will also hold Ypres' Last Post ceremony

The famous Last Post bugle ceremony conducted every evening at 20.00 in Ypres will be exported to the United States in 2024.

The bugle ceremony will take place in Washington DC, RTBF reports.

Three members of the Last Post Association, which coordinates the commemoration, travelled to the United States to train American buglers at the invitation of the Doughboy Foundation and the Taps for Veterans association.

From September 2024, the Last Post will be played at the new memorial in Pershing Park, a stone's throw from the White House.

“We are of course honoured and happy to be able to help launch the daily ceremony in Washington,” Mathieu Mottrie, vice-president of the association, told VRT.

“On 2 July, we will be celebrating the 95th anniversary of the very first Last Post and we are of course delighted to share this experience and expertise with the Americans.”

Three Last Post events were scheduled during the Ypres buglers' visit to the United States, in New York, Gettysburg and Washington, culminating in the laying of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery.

The premiere of the first official American playing of the Last Post at the opening of the new memorial will be attended by US president Joe Biden. The Ypres buglers will also be on hand.

Since 1928, every evening at 20.00, when the fire brigade closes the road under the Menin Gate memorial, the buglers in Belgium play the Last Post.

Come wind or snow – or even a pandemic – the buglers pay tribute to the nearly 55,000 soldiers of the British Empire who died during the Second World War in the area around Ypres in West Flanders.

The ceremony has been held continuously at the foot of the memorial since 2 July 1928, except during the German occupation, when it was held in the United Kingdom, although the recent renovation of the Menin Gate required the buglers to move the ceremony a few metres.